When using an inspection apparatus for inspecting semiconductor wafers or other samples using light beams or charged particle beams, it is necessary to, when a sample (e.g., a semiconductor wafer) to be inspected is mounted on an inspection stage, accurately determine the rotation about the normal line of the sample plane as the rotation axis and the positions of orthogonal two axes on a plane that is parallel with the sample plane (i.e., perform alignment).
In conventional devices (e.g., see Patent Literature 1), alignment is performed by capturing an image of a specific pattern located at a plurality of positions on a sample using a low-magnification optical microscope, and rotating and/or translating the sample so that the specific pattern appears at a predetermined position. A bright-field optical microscope is used for the optical microscope. In order for a specific pattern to be recognized from the captured image, the specific pattern should have high contrast with the background.